Automatic door-operating device



April 28, 1931.

,1. w. GRATZ AUTOMATIC DOOR OPERATING DEVICE Filed April 15. 1929 R o rN a v N JOHN W- G774 Tz,

By: gy

Patented Apr. 28, 1931 J GEN W. GBA'IZ, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIAAUTOMATIC DOOR-OPERATING DEVICE Application filed April 15,

This invention relates to devices used for automatically opening andclosing doors, especially garage doors.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide a door mountedswingably on a horizontally disposed pivot to swing in a vertical planeor direction.

Another object is to provide operating means to function automaticallyby the touch of an approaching automobile or vehicle at a certaindistance from the door for automatically swinging the door upwardly intopractically horizontal open position abovethe level of the top of thevehicle, so thatthe vehicle can pass below the horizontally disposedopen door into a garage before which this door is eventually used.

'Another object is to provide operating means that can be operated fromthe outside as well as from the inside of a building, such as a garagefor automobiles.

Another object is to provide a swingable door balanced so that when itis released from its locking latches it will swing from its practicallyvertical closing position into a practically horizontal open position.

Another object is to provide a swingable door with latching and closingmechanisms, the door being balanced or rather overbalanced to normallyswing on its horizontally disposed swingingaxis so as to bring the doorinto a practically horizontal open position by the overbalancing weightprovided on the door, the latching mechanisms serving to hold the dooragainst the balance in closed practically vertical position, and theclosing mechanism serving to overcome the overbalancing weight and toclose the door into a practically vertical position.

Other objects will appear from the following description and appendedclaim as well as from the accompanying which 7 Fig. 1 is a fragmentaryperspective view of a swingable door mounted on pivots with apractically horizontal axis to allow a swinging of a door inapractically vertical plane, embodying further latchin releasn I o mg,and closing mechamsms for the swingdrawing, in

1929. Serial No. 355,146.

able door to allow an operation according to this invention.

Fig. 2 is a perspective illustration of the swingable door in itspractically horizontal open position without the door jambs and withoutother cooperating mechanisms.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary side elevation of catching and closingmechanisms for the door, a portion of the door being shown in openposition caught between certain parts of the mechanisms.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary somewhat diagrammatic illustration of a latchingmecha nism operative under electric control, such as an electrorheostatcontrol.

The principal feature of this invention involves to enable a driver of avehicle, cs-

pecially of an automobile, to drive intoa garage without leaving hisseat, which may be accomplished by a contacting of the automobile withan automatic switch or automatically operating mechanism, or, of course,may be also accomplished by an electrically operating mechanism of whichthe switch is under latch control operative by the driver of theautomobile by having the switch so arranged along the driveway to bereached by the driver while remaining in his seat in the automobile.

As illustrated, the door 5 is swingably mounted on the horizontal shaft6 which is turnably supported in the ball bearings 7 in the uprightjambs 8, so that by this pivotal suspension a door can swing around thehorizontal axis of this support in a practically vertical plane.

A balancing or overbalanoing weight 9 is provided near the upper end ofthe door 5 on theinside of the door so that the normal tendency of thedoor is to swing to the open position in which the door is illustratedin Along one upright edge of the door a wedge or guide block .10 isarranged so that a roller 11 provided on an upright or verticallyshiftable member 12 can contact with this wedge to result in a closingoperation of the'door when the roller is moved upwardly against thewedge 10. The upright or vertically shifting member 12 is operative by afoot pedal or lever 13. Though the upright member 12 can be made tooperate by gravity through its own weight, it must be understood that aspring, not shown in the drawing, may be arranged to increase thedownward movement of the member 12 to eventually more quickly take theroller 11 away from the wedge.

The roller 11 with the upright member 12 is normally in the inoperativeor lowermost position in which it is illustrated in Fig. 1,

so that these parts do not interfere with the opening movement of thedoor.

l/Vhen the door is closed it is held in its closed position by asuitable latching mechanism,

In Fig. 1 a simple latching arrangement has been indicated, a bolt 14being shiftable in an upright direction to engage with a catch 15 on thelower end 16 of the door 5. The latch bolt 14 is in operative connectionwith an outside bolt 17 by levers 18 and 19 through a connecting rod 20.A spring 21 is indicated by which the mechanism may be held in itsnormal latching position. This latching mechanism is preferably disposedunder the driveway or under the floor in the mannerwell illus ratedinFig. 1 of the drawing, since these parts are shown in dotted lines;

This arrangement serves to facilitate an operation of the door by thewheel of an approaching automobile, a wheel being roughly outlined at 22near the outside bolt 17.

As the wheel 22 contacts with the bolt 17 and by a forward movementpushes this bolt 17 downwardly, the latching'mechanism is actuated so asto withdraw the inner latch bolt 14 from the catch 15 on the lower endof the door, thereby releasing the door from the latching mechanism.

Inasmuch as the door is overbalanced by the weight indicated at 9, thedoor automatically swings upwardly to its horizontal open position inwhich it is illustrated in Fig. 2. The automobile can then continue tomove through the door opening and underneath the horizontally disposeddoor into the garage.

In order to close the door, a foot pedal 13 is actuated so as to move orpush the member 12 with the roller 11 upwardly against the wedge 10 andagainst the, overbalancing weight 9 on the door, so that the door caneasily be swung back to its vertical'closing position in which it isillustrated in Fig. 1. i

The upper end of the upright member 12 is provided with a controllingextension end 23 disposed so 'as to be in cooperative relation with acontrol apparatus embodying certaindoor' catching and holding mechaiisms, more clearly illustrated in Fig.3.

Tliebracket 24c serves to support and guide thecatch as well as'thedoorholding and supporting mechanisms in certain cooperative relation.The bracket is for this purpose provided with certain cut-outs 25, 26and 27. The door holding and supporting member 28 is shiftably disposedthrough the cut-out 27 with its lowermost side extension 29 projectingsidewise beyond the outer contours of the bracket 24, so that the door5, when in its horizontal open position, comes into contact with thisdoor holding and supporting member 28. A catching member 30 is disposedshiftably in a horizontal direction through the cut-out 26 in thebracket and somewhat swingably and shiftably through the cut-out 25.

80 A spring 31 serves to normally holdthe catch member 30 pressedoutwardly in the position in which it is illustrated andallows aswinging or moving of the catch close to the front side of the bracketto release the. door to be moved to closing position when the uprightmember 12 is pushed upwardly.

When the roller 11 is moved by the upright member 12 upwardly againstthe wedge 10 on the upper end of the door, the, extension end 23 of theupright member wedges against the catch 30 in such a manner that ittilts the upper end 32 against the inner face of the bracket 24 so as tobring the outward extension portion of the catch.

30 closely against the outer face of the' bracket 24, whereby the dooris freed for its closing operation by a continued upward movement of theupright member 12 with the roller continuing against the wedge 10.,

The door isswung. until the bolt 14 engages swinging door. The door mayin this mani nerswing into open position with, a slight vibrationbetween the catch 30 and the support 28.

The spring 33 serves also to cooperate with the spring 31 in holding thecatch in;

operative position and at the same time yields to the movement of theextension end 23 on the. uprightmember 12 when the upri 'ht member withthe extension end'23 is operated for closing the door.

Of course, the, operating and catching members though illustrated withcertain specific details in the drawing, as described above, may bemodified in various ways, and

I do not limit myself to thespecific details referred ,to in thespecification as long as the, general functions of this invention can beproduced by other modified minor details.

A slightly modified form of operating and controllingmechanisms isillustrated in Fig.

4 in a somewhat diagrammatical manner. A solenoid or electrorheostat 34serves to control a latch bolt that may be disposed near the upper endof the door 5. This bolt 35 may easily be connected to a wheel-actuatedbolt similar to the one indicated at 17 or, of course, may be operatedby a switch of any standard make, eventually contro1- lable by alatchkey box, a contact button being indicated at 36 and open leadsbeing indicated at 37 to show that any number of operating terminationsmay be provided to facilitate an operation of the solenoid from anypoint convenient to a driver of a vehicle.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

In an automatic door operating device, a door having pivoting means witha horizontal axis by which the door is swingably mounted, acounterweight on the door for actuating the door to swing to ahorizontal position, latching means for holding the door againstswinging movements in a vertical position and including a bolt in aposition in the ground and adapted to be actuated by the wheel of anapproaching vehicle when rolling over the bolt to release the door forthe swinging movement from a vertical to a horizontal position, catchingmeans for engaging and holding the door in a comparatively stationarycondition when reaching the horizontal position and adapted to beactuated to release the door for moving back to a vertical position, andmeans for disengaging the catching means and embodying a contactingmember adapted to impart an initial movement to the door for moving thebalanced door from the horizontal position back to the normal verticalclosing position.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed myname.

JOHN W. GRATZ.

